Sitting on the floor of our rental cabin, I talked Porter through the steps of splicing Dyneema loops and inserting low friction rings. Ever my studious rigging assistant, he then helped as we whipped and finished each part before hanging them from the rafters for a test run. Being the first day of the new year it seemed appropriate to be completing something for Yahtzee, working together towards what will be a big part of 2019 — getting back out cruising full-time again.

Twenty nineteen is here and our whole crew can feel the energy of what’s to come. Five days out cruising our local waters before the calendar flipped to 2019 was just what our family and Yahtzee needed to keep setting us on the right course. The mini shakedown was a perfect way to connect with one another, reflect on and say goodbye to an incredible year in Alaska.

I’d intended to spend a chunk of this post re-hashing 2018, but that doesn’t seem fitting. The year is in our wake and it seems more appropriate to press forward towards the future. We’re all excited for the year ahead. And, yes, I say all of us, because our 5-year-old and newly minted 4-year-old know what’s going on. They know what’s coming. Preparations on the boat are happening before their eyes and we’re including them in what it takes and means to shove off the dock to continue writing the next pages of our lives.

Though we love Alaska and the Pacific Northwest, the world map currently hanging above our table is something we’ve been fawning over with an eye toward Mexico and warmer climes. Porter draws courses for Yahtzee in dry erase marker and we point to countries and places we want to experience and learn more about. After all, that’s what the essence of life is, learning and living through new people and places and the adventures that take us there.

I came across this quote recently that sums up Jill and my experience and is part of what we want to instill in our children not just in the new year, but always.

“If I do have any advice for anybody, any final thought, if I’m an advocate for anything, it’s to move. As far as you can, as much as you can. Across the ocean, or simply across the river. The extent to which you can walk in somebody else’s shoes—or at least eat their food—it’s a plus for everybody.” – Anthony Bourdain

That’s what we’re looking forward to in 2019 for our family, moving across oceans —and living— 40-feet at a time.